She's A Lady
by xCeceVolumex
Summary: Continuation of Man to Man and Come Down With Love.  Sho, being confronted by Kyoko's true feelings, expresses his own.


_As promised, here is the ShoxKyoko part of the trilogy! I'm thinking about lengthening the _Man to Man_ universe a little bit with one last talk between Sho and Ren, but I can't promise that._

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Skip Beat!

She's a Lady

_I'm in love with a girl I hate.  
>She enjoys pointing out every bad thing about me.<em>

Sho searched for Kyoko, easily seeing over the heads of all the other people in the restaurant. Why didn't it surprise him that she would go to a restaurant after he kicked her out? But who would give a minor a place to stay without parental consent? Didn't they know that they could get into real trouble if the wrong person found out?

Finally, he caught sight of her just in the back of the room, delivering some drinks to a couple of older men who leered openly at her. One glance at them told Sho that they were drunk and probably belligerent, but when he saw one of their hands heading for Kyoko's backside, he growled, quickly moving to her side.

"I want to talk with you, Kyoko," he said as he moved to block the man's hand. He sent a frightening glare down at the balding man, noting with pleasure that he had sunk in his seat, obviously scared of the tall teen. "It's really important."

She kept that smile on her face, but he could see the flare of impatience in her eyes. "Shoutaro, I have some guests to take care of. Perhaps another time? We are quite busy." Her voice was deceptively calm, but he sensed the fire beneath it, the temper threatening to break out the moment they were alone.

He raised an eyebrow as she turned from him, striding with elegance and grace towards the next customers she was supposed to help. Following close behind her, he said, "Then I'll go wait up in your room. I'm guessing it's upstairs."

She spun on him, eyes wide and shocked. He couldn't help the little smile that came over his face at the sight of her; she was still aware of him in every way. Hadn't it always been like that between them? Easy, despite arguments and different genders. And, as he'd known she would, she motioned up the stairs and towards the right with two fingers, speaking to him without saying a word.

As he walked up to her bedroom, he went over their past in his head, remembering that they had been able to do that since they were children. If they'd ever been in a relationship, people would have called them perfect.

_A relationship? What the hell am I thinking?_ Sho demanded of himself, furious that something so stupid had actually popped into his head. Kyoko wasn't a girl he could be with; she was Kyoko. Plain, fragile Kyoko. He couldn't be with her the way he'd been with other women; she wouldn't be able to handle it when his boredom came and forced him somewhere else.

Wasn't that why he'd carefully placed her in the role of maid? She couldn't handle him in any way other than a maternal or sibling-like way. He'd known for a very long time that she loved him; he'd have been an idiot not to know that. But that didn't mean he could use her like he had others that had "loved" him. Hers was a pure love and she deserved someone that could give her a future, be with her forever.

But he wasn't about to hand that over to Tsuruga. If she had found a normal man with a normal job that wasn't Sho's rival, he would have allowed it. Hell, he would have congratulated them on their wedding day. Yet she was being chased by his biggest rival, and that man obviously believed that he had a stake in Kyoko.

_"Fuwa, she's _mine_ now."_

_ "And I plan to be the one she spends the _better_ part of her life with."_

With a sneer, Sho moved into the second room on the right at the top of stairs, wishing that he had never spoken to Tsuruga. It made him realize that he might actually be _jealous_ of someone getting close to Kyoko. How insane was that? It made so little sense it was laughable. He could handle being envious towards rivals in the business; that he could pour into his music, work harder. But he knew, somewhere within him, that he couldn't control Kyoko as he once had. It would no longer be just a word from him that would stop her from doing something.

_But it's me that will always be in back of her mind when she moves up in show business. She'll think of me._

He didn't care whether it was anger that made her think of him, that still gave him some power over her; he just wanted her to think of him, in whatever way possible.

Glancing around the room, he was shocked to see a large poster of himself looking back at him with a certain amount of disdain in his features. Why would she have a poster of him if she hated him so? Next to it, he angrily noted, was a smaller poster of Tsuruga, watching his every move. As he flashed to the new side of Tsuruga he'd seen when they'd spoken, his fury bubbled anew, though he'd told himself that he would stay calm with her to say what he wanted to.

The door creaked as she walked through it, sighing, "Sho, I really can't waste a bunch of time on you today. We're really busy and I promised Okami-san that I would help out today—"

"What the hell is this?" he demanded, pointing at the wall with a rigid finger. "Why the hell do you have that guy's poster on your wall?"

Her eyebrow twitched with annoyance, but her entire demeanor changed suddenly. "That isn't any of your business, Shoutaro. Ren is my sempai and friend—don't interrupt me!" she interrupted herself quickly before he could lobby a stream of abuse at that statement. "His poster makes me remember what acting means to me and the goals I've set for myself. I will keep it up until I reach those goals."

"Then why do you have mine up next to it?" he growled, suddenly not liking where the conversation was going.

A sadness came into her eyes that he hadn't seen in many years, one that rivaled her pain over her mother. "To make sure that I never give up. If I do, then you win."

Once he heard the words aloud, realized what he truly was to her, his heart clenched painfully in his chest. So, it was true then. She really did hate him. He doubted there was anyway for him to fix what _he'd_ broken; all the things he'd done to her didn't matter anymore because she had moved on from her past while he was still floundering in its depths.

_She _wasn't the one that was wrong, he realized.

His shoulders drooped and he gave up trying to keep up his proud, vain exterior. He'd lost the one person he thought would always come back to him, the one constant in his life. She didn't need him anymore, didn't want him anyways. Looking her dead in the eye, he muttered, "I just wanted to say...you know...sorry. For what I did."

Large amber eyes blinked in confusion at him, before a look of suspicion came over her face. "You say that," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest, "but I really don't think you mean it. You knew that I would have followed you anywhere and you used that to your benefit. You had no intention of keeping me around after I was no longer necessary."

He wanted to tell her how necessary she was to him, but knew it would do no good. Nothing he said would. Sighing, he strode to the door, pausing with his hand on the doorframe. He glanced over his shoulder at her, true sadness filling him for the first time in his life. "You don't have to believe me. All that really matters is I'm sorry. I wish it hadn't turned out this way."

Then he left, knowing that she wouldn't be coming after him like she would have before. Knowing he had completely broken any friendship that might have been there.

He would never hear her say, "I forgive you."

_Yes, kind of a sad ending to the ShoxKyoko, but I couldn't bring myself to write her forgiving him just yet. But I do believe that, if Sho had to see how she felt about him firsthand, without yelling or fighting, he would be sorry and realize that there was really nothing he could do to change what's gone on between them. It would all be on Kyoko.  
>Anyways, I hope you liked it!<em>


End file.
